1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automatic dish serving system capable of effectively serving dishes including food and drink to customers at restaurant or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
The inventors of the present invention had developed a dish serving system capable of serving the dish including food and drink to customers in a short time without requiring to pass through many hands in comparison with the conventional dish serving systems such as, so called, Viking-system (smorgasbord system), or dish circulating system that had been conventionally adopted at restaurant and sushi-bar or the like. For example, in the dish circulating system adopted at the sushi-bar, a number of sushi pieces (fish on vinegared rice) are circulated around the customer""s seats by successively carrying the sushi pieces by means of conveyers. Such systems had been disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (Unexamined) No. HEI 10-113115.
However, such dish serving systems had raised problems that a conveyor occupies a large space for the restaurant or the like having a limited narrow space, and an area to which the dishes including foods and drinks are served was also limited to a narrow range. The inventors of the present invention had further advanced the research for improving the dish serving system in order to solve the aforementioned problems.
An object of the present invention is to provide an automatic dish serving system capable of effectively serving dish including food and drink to customers and having an excellent mobility.
In order to achieve the aforementioned object, the present invention provides an automatic dish serving system comprising: a supply center for supplying dish articles such as food and drink to a customer""s seat to which the articles are served; a carrier wagon traveling along a route between the supply center and the customer""s seat for carrying the dish articles of food and drink loaded on the carrier wagon; and a route guiding means for guiding the carrier wagon so as to take an appropriate route, wherein the customer""s seat is provided with a turntable for retaining the served dishes of food and drink, and provided with an arrival portion to which the carrier wagon arrives; and wherein the carrier wagon is provided with a transfer means for transferring the dish articles between the turntable and the carrier wagon.
Further, in the above dish serving system, it is preferable that the transfer means of the carrier wagon is provided with a conveyor movable in forward and backward direction of the carrier wagon, and a front portion of the carrier wagon is provided with a table entering portion for entering a peripheral portion of the turntable into a portion inside from a front end surface of the carrier wagon so that the peripheral portion of the turntable can be approached to a portion close to a top portion of the conveyer.
In addition to the above requirements, it is preferable that the dish serving system further comprises a tray for performing a transfer of the dish articles such as food and drink between the carrier wagon and the turntable, while a wrapping connector of the conveyor is provided with an engaging hook for engaging with an engaging portion formed to the tray, so that the engaging hook is engaged with the engaging portion thereby to withdraw the tray.
Furthermore, in addition to the above requirements, it is preferable that the dish serving system further comprises: a loading state judging means provided to the carrier wagon for judging whether the dish article is loaded on the carrier wagon or not; a retaining state judging means for judging whether the dish article is retained on the turntable or not; and a table turning means provided at a front portion of the carrier wagon for turning the turntable in response to a signal from the retaining state judging means; wherein the conveyor of the transfer means transfers the dish articles between the carrier wagon and the turntable in response to signals from the loading state judging means and the retaining state judging means.
Further, in the above dish serving system, it is preferable that the carrier wagon further comprises a sound generating means for generating a sound in response to signals from the loading state judging means and the retaining state judging means.
Furthermore, it is preferable that the route guiding means comprises: a memory means for memorizing traveling route data for the carrier wagon to travel; and a computer capable of reading out the data from the memory means; wherein the automatic dish serving system comprises a plurality of customer""s seats and each of the customer""s seats is allotted with a different identification code, the carrier wagon comprises an inputting means for inputting the identification code of the customer""s seat to which the dish including food and drink should be served, the carrier wagon travels along a traveling route ranging from a route previously set for the carrier wagon to a route selected by the route guiding means in response to a signal form the inputting means.
Furthermore, in the above automatic dish serving system, it is preferable that the route guiding means further comprises: a signal transmitting means provided at a predetermined portion of a system site for transmitting a signal to the carrier wagon; a position calculating means provided to the carrier wagon for calculating a position of the carrier wagon in the system site by receiving the signal from the signal transmitting means; and a travel controlling means for controlling a traveling device for the carrier wagon on the basis of a result obtained by calculating a positional relation between an actual position of the carrier wagon calculated by the position calculating means and a destination point in the system site.
Further, it is also preferable that the carrier wagon further comprises: an obstacle detecting means for detecting obstacle existing in front of the carrier wagon; and an obstacle bypassing means for controlling the traveling of the carrier wagon so as to bypass the obstacle in response to a signal from the obstacle bypassing means.
Furthermore, in addition to the above requirement, it is also preferable that the dish serving system further comprises: an outer controller for remotely controlling the carrier wagon; a transmitting means for transmitting a signal to the carrier wagon, the signal corresponding to an operation of the outer controller; a receiving means provided to the carrier wagon for receiving the signal from the transmitting means; and a controlling means for controlling a movement of the carrier wagon in response to the signal received by the receiving means, wherein the carrier wagon performs a processing corresponding to the signal from the controlling means by giving the processing priority over all the other processing.
In addition, it is also preferable that the customer""s seat comprises a leftover withdrawing (recovering) system for withdrawing from the table an empty dish and tableware left on the table.
Further, it is also preferable that at least one wagon for loading the dish articles is further coupled to the carrier wagon. It is more preferable that the carrier wagon is provided with an adjusting means for adjusting a vertical position of the conveyor.